Ventura walking tour

Ventura does not look like the Palo Alto of postcards. The lots are small, the streets are narrow and the biggest building is a former cannery. For most of the 20th century this was unincorporated county land between El Camino Real and the railroad. Palo Alto annexed the strip on December 29, 1954. After the war Ventura was more open to Black and Latino families than most of the city. Its smaller houses made it a starting point for buyers with modest budgets.

The neighborhood is also changing fast. The city adopted a plan for the northern part of Ventura in 2024 and the cannery reopened in 2026. This walk shows what is there now. Our Ventura neighborhood guide covers the area plan, schools and housing in more depth.

Before you go

The loop runs about 2.3 miles and takes about 1.25 hours. Both are our estimates. It starts and ends at Yutori on El Camino Real. The California Avenue Caltrain station is about a 10 to 15 minute walk from the cannery, so you can also join the loop at stop 5 by train. See our Caltrain guide.

• Parking: Yutori has parking behind the building for customers. Side streets have limited curb space.
• Weekdays: The light industrial blocks around Park Boulevard and Lambert Avenue are busy with trucks and workers on weekdays.
• Election week: The Ventura Community Center is one of the city's vote centers for the November 3, 2026 election, so expect extra visitors around stop 9 that week.

Coffee at the start

Yutori, at 3375 El Camino Real, is a Japanese cafe, konbini, hot deli and market with a restaurant and bar in the evenings. Its website lists the cafe open daily from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m., with matcha, coffee and house-made pastries. The market stays open until 5 p.m. The site carried 2026 press coverage when we checked. Pick up an onigiri or a bento from the konbini if you want a picnic at Boulware Park. Check the cafe's site for current hours.

The route, stop by stop

1. El Camino Real. Leave Yutori and look along the old highway. The city's 2019 historic survey of the North Ventura area dated most of the commercial buildings on this stretch to the 1950s and 1960s, including a 1960 hotel pool parcel. None was found eligible for the state register. They show how the strip grew after annexation.
2. Olive Avenue. Turn into the residential blocks. The same survey found that most houses on Olive Avenue were built in a single year, 1946, as postwar families arrived. The oldest on the street, at 456 Olive, dates to 1904. Ash, Olive and Pepper echo the tree names of old Mayfield streets such as Birch.
3. Pepper Avenue and Ash Street. Pepper Avenue's surviving houses date mostly from 1939 and 1940. On Ash Street, 3275 Ash was recorded as built in 1900. Watch for new two-story homes and townhouses where older houses came down. The survey found two Pepper Avenue lots where older houses had been demolished and new buildings were going up.
4. Lambert Avenue. Walk toward the tracks. Low concrete block and stucco commercial buildings from the 1930s to the 1960s line this street. The city plan calls for more housing here near the California Avenue station.
5. The Cannery, 340 Portage Avenue. In 1918 Thomas Foon Chew, the Chinese American businessman known as the Asparagus King, bought about four acres here and built a plant for his Bayside Canning Company. He sold it to the Sutter Packing Company in 1928 and canning ended in 1949. Later the building housed Fry's Electronics. The 2019 survey called it the oldest surviving development in the plan area and the only building there that appeared eligible for the state register. The Sobrato Organization turned it into an all-electric commercial building, celebrated on May 12, 2026.
6. The Chew mosaic and the cans. Stand on the public frontage. Kyungmi Shin's glass mosaic in the city's art collection shows Chew, cannery workers, product labels, the patent drawing for an asparagus sorting machine and apricot blossoms over valley fields. A computer among zeros and ones nods to the Fry's years. A sculpture of oversized cans by the door spells out Bayside Canning Company. In fall 2025 the council voted to rename the street Thomas Foon Chew Avenue. Our Thomas Foon Chew page tells his story.
7. Matadero Creek. The creek crosses the north end of Ventura in a concrete channel on its way to the bay. The North Ventura plan, adopted on August 5, 2024, includes work on bringing a more natural creek back along this stretch. Look over the fence from a street crossing and imagine willows instead of concrete. Our Matadero Creek guide follows it from the hills.
8. Boulware Park, 390 Fernando Road. The neighborhood park doubled in size when the city added a former AT&T site and spent about $4.2 million joining the pieces. It fully reopened on April 25, 2025, at 2.4 acres by the city's project figures. Look for the climbing dome, a tot lot, a basketball court, a bocce court, a meadow and a planter that filters stormwater. It is named for John Wesley Boulware, who arrived in the area in October 1852 at age 22. The city also commissioned a public artwork for the renovation with text about the Ventura neighborhood. We could not confirm that it is installed, so look for it as you walk the paths.
9. Ventura Community Center, 3990 Ventura Court. Follow Park Boulevard south, the calm bike route through the neighborhood, then turn toward Ventura Court. This city site has a park and playground plus buildings leased to child care and preschool programs.
10. Back to El Camino Real. Return west to El Camino Real and walk north to Yutori. Starbucks at 3885 El Camino Real is a short detour south if you need a second coffee.

A neighborhood in the middle of a plan

The North Ventura Coordinated Area Plan covers the area roughly bounded by Page Mill Road, El Camino Real, Lambert Avenue and the Caltrain tracks. The council adopted it on August 5, 2024, after several years of meetings. Its aims include more homes near the station, a better Matadero Creek and new parkland. In 2022 the city and Sobrato agreed on a framework for the cannery site that included townhomes, about 3.25 acres for future parkland and land for affordable housing. Those pieces need their own approvals and take years. Check the city's North Ventura page for the latest before you assume anything new is built.

The 2019 survey is a useful lens for the walk. Apart from the cannery, it found no building in the plan area eligible for the state register. What makes Ventura worth a walk is not a single landmark house. It is the way a 1918 factory, 1940s cottages, 1960s workshops and 2020s townhouses share a few blocks.

Accessibility notes

• The route is flat. Sidewalks are continuous on most blocks, but driveways and loading areas cross them often near Lambert Avenue and Park Boulevard.
• El Camino Real is wide and busy. Cross only at signals.
• The city tags Boulware Park for wheelchair access on its paths and facilities. It lists no restroom.
• For a shorter walk of about 1.2 miles, go from the cannery to Boulware Park and back to the California Avenue station.

Sidewalk etiquette

Pairing it with other walks

Our California Avenue walking tour also visits the cannery and continues north into old Mayfield. South of West Meadow Drive, the Eichler streets of Charleston Meadows are covered in our Charleston Meadows walking tour.

Sources

Building dates come from the city's 2019 preliminary historic resource analysis for the North Ventura plan. Cannery and mosaic details follow the city's public art listing and local reporting on the May 2026 celebration. Park details come from the city's Boulware Park project pages. Distances are our estimates.

Frequently asked questions